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Sergio Garcia was disqualified from the Saudi International because of "serious misconduct" on Saturday.

Garcia was accused by fellow players of purposefully hitting his clubs into the surface of the greens causing damage. Garcia posted a 1-over 71 in the third round, but was ultimately disqualified by the European Tour via Rule 1.2a.

This is how the USGA explains Rule 1.2a, which relates to player conduct, under the new Rules of Golf:

It declares that players are expected to play in the spirit of the game by acting with integrity, showing consideration to others and taking good care of the course.

It unequivocally states the Committee’s authority to disqualify a player for any serious misconduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game.

In place of the unclear previous concept of “breach of etiquette”, it uses the more direct and stronger phrases “misconduct” and “serious misconduct.”

Garcia issued a statement following his disqualification, saying, "I respect the decision of my disqualification. In frustration, I damaged a couple of greens, for which I apologize for, and I have informed my fellow players it will never happen again.”

"It is believed that Garcia damaged five greens during his third circuit, with players in the four groups immediately behind him all complaining to rules officials about the state he’d left them," the paper reported.

This incident adds to an already controversial beginning to the inaugural event as players in the field have been criticized for their participation after Saudi Arabia's involvement in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

I believe the penalty wasn't severe enough. If the penalty was more severe like eliminating his option to play in a major this would never happen. Money isn't a deterrent to somebody with his resources.

Seriously, damaging one green gets you a DQ, but 5...should get you at least a year off to think about what you did. There is no excuse for that behavior, period.

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Buddy it was a different time and we weren’t a bunch of wimps. The young man in question thanked me! And his father is my best friend at the time I looked at him and said”Gary are you gonna handle this crap or am I. “ he just grinned and said be my guest. Yes I guess I’m a savage. But more butt whooping makes better behaved children. I never spanked my children without making them anticipate it. And having a talk before and hugs after. My children were very well behaved

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Buddy it was a different time and we weren’t a bunch of wimps. The young man in question thanked me! And his father is my best friend at the time I looked at him and said”Gary are you gonna handle this crap or am I. “ he just grinned and said be my guest. Yes I guess I’m a savage. But more butt whooping makes better behaved children. I never spanked my children without making them anticipate it. And having a talk before and hugs after. My children were very well behaved

The damage caused to greens by Sergio Garcia in the inaugural Saudi International as he became the first player in European Tour history to be disqualified for such behaviour was a mixture of deliberate “scuff marks”...

They can suspend a guy (Simon Dyson) for two months for almost absent-mindedly tapping down a spike mark, but Sergio does this and gets nothing.

Yep. I think the European Tour knows that Sergio will just come here to the States and play our tour. One less name on the Euro Tour is bad for them. Most of their guys are playing more here now anyway so they have to keep who they can.

Buddy it was a different time and we weren’t a bunch of wimps. The young man in question thanked me! And his father is my best friend at the time I looked at him and said”Gary are you gonna handle this crap or am I. “ he just grinned and said be my guest. Yes I guess I’m a savage. But more butt whooping makes better behaved children. I never spanked my children without making them anticipate it. And having a talk before and hugs after. My children were very well behaved

Spoiler

There was NEVER a time when beating an 11 year old with a metal rod was OK.

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Yep. I think the European Tour knows that Sergio will just come here to the States and play our tour. One less name on the Euro Tour is bad for them. Most of their guys are playing more here now anyway so they have to keep who they can.

What would be great is if the PGA Tour slapped a suspension on him.....not sure they could actually do it, but would love to see it if they could.

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The PGA Tour should tell him that if he wants to play on the PGA Tour he will have to put up a $100,000 bond to cover the cost of any damage he causes by his childish and irresponsible behavior on the golf course and that he'll get it back at the end of the season, and that if he doesn't like it, he can play elsewhere. Could you imagine if he had done this at the Masters?!! As far as I'm concerned, he acted like a madman. Damaging one green in a fit of anger is a total outrage....but FIVE??? I wouldn't want him on my course, I'll tell you that.

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I gotta admit, watching him go ballistic in the bunker was some funny shite but never damage a green. When I first started playing, I damaged a green after missing a short putt. I swung my putter at the ball, missed and took a chunk out of the green. My playing partner, who was the guy to get me into golf and was also my boss at the time, dressed me up and down in the cart for my actions. Never did that again.

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I know it's a little late, but I said no majors before the year started and am sticking to that, although I hope I'm wrong. I think his best shot will be at Pebble. I do think he will finish in the top-3 there but I think one of the big hitters (DJ, Koepka, Rory) will power through.
PGA wins, I'll go with 2. I think he'll win one of his normal events (Bay Hill or Memorial) and then win a FedEx event. I think he will get into the top 30 with a lot of top-10 finishes this year to play The TOUR.

It hasn't been too cold in NC, but it has been as wet as I can remember. I have played once this week, and it has rained every day, and is supposed to rain this weekend. I've played less this winter than any winter in recent memory. Hurry up spring!

Also happening on the LPGA:
The full videos doesn't show it, but I'm wondering if Olson gave a sign or something to Jutanugarn not to mark here. Jutanugarn goes to start marking her ball, it looks like, and she looks over at Olson, motioning something, and immediately stops. This seems awfully close to the line, if not over it.
LPGA apparently deleted a tweet about this, too:
Yikes.

I chose time because a lot of people I know don't want to play because it's too long for them and they don't have the time. Also here in Canada, Quebec accessibility is starting to be an issue, probably more than in the U.S. A lot of golf course are sold to property developers and it's starting to limit the choices of course at close range. I don't think money is an issue, there is always deals you can find to play golf at a discount and other activities cost as much as golf these days.